A Night at the Bar
by MagCat
Summary: What happens when you mix a night of comforting a friend at a local bar, a night out on the town for some teenagers, and alcohol? Why, you can only obtain madness… and fun. Rating for language!


**Summary: **What happens when you mix a night of comforting a friend at a local bar, a night out on the town for some teenagers, and alcohol? Why, you can only obtain madness… and fun. Couplings: Loro, Lancitty, Rohne, Romy, Jonda, X-ietro, Anlocke, Amay (Ray/Amara), Jubby, Tam, Lorex (Alex/Lorna), Evanielle (Evan/Danielle) and maybe more…

**Disclaimer: **I DO NOT OWN X-MEN IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM! If you think that I own this amazing franchise then talk to Stan Lee; he'll set you right…

**A/N:** The high rating is due to the fact that this takes place in a bar and rough language will ensue… you have been warned… This does not tie in with the plotline of my fic. _Unification_; this was merely for fun.

"…"- conversation

'…'- thoughts

(…)- extra facts/actions (some)

'_blah…' _-telepathy/what people say mentally

_**A Night at the Bar**_

_**Joey's Bar and Tavern, Bayville, New York, USA—June 8, 2006, 11:05 PM**_

To say that the Xavier Institute for the Gifted had had a busy day would have been an understatement and a drastic one at that. For in the mere span of ten hours the entire mansion had been cleaned top to bottom (with Logan complaining the whole time to a less than sympathetic Ororo about the insanity of it all), the gardens had been trimmed to absolute perfection (again, much to Ororo's frustration her dear friend Logan had chosen to complain to her, even though she hadn't had him work in the garden), all of the students' vehicles had been cleaned and polished, including Scott's prized cherry red convertible (now covered in mud due to one of Tabitha's stray bombs), and the students had all presented themselves to Ororo, Hank, Jean, and Professor Xavier for inspection before they had been allowed to leave the mansion and take their seats on the front lawn (Todd had complained during the entire cleaning process, making sure to point out that he would just get dirty at the end of the day to a less than amused weather witch).

To understand the situation at the mansion one had to go directly to the source—who was currently hunched over a glass of strong liquor, of which brand is uncertain, but its mistress was unmistakable. Back-length, pristine white hair currently in a braid hung over her right shoulder, her usually bright cerulean eyes covered with an alcohol-fogged glaze, and mocha skin currently shining with sweat from the heat of the bar. To say that Ororo Munroe had had a bad day was an understatement; one that could cause the observer to flinch in fear once they saw her eyes at their clearest…

It was in this state that Logan Howlett found his fellow teacher and mediator as he entered the bar, hoping against hopes to find some refuge here from the accusing stares of his mentor Professor Charles Xavier and a lecture from hard-nosed Scott Summers on the dangers of drinking when he had to teach a class the next day. Screw drinking; Logan knew his healing factor would take care of any internal damage in an instant, leaving the prospect of him getting drunk a laughable one. Besides, the only reason that Logan drank anymore was to get away from his fellow teacher Scott and his hard-assed principles, or maybe to just get away from the real world for a few sparse moments.

Logan cast a wary glance at the weather-witch, debating whether or not he should approach her and apologize for his actions earlier that day. The source of his animosity towards her was the fact that he had been dealing with an overload of emotions that day from most of the student body, causing him to be moody most of the morning. Unfortunately, he had taken out his temper on Ororo, who had only tried to help make the students' special day—Graduation Day, to be precise—more special than it already was, leaving him filled with guilt and a desire to know why he was feeling guilty at having made Ororo's day more difficult than it had already been.

After arguing with himself Logan spoke to the bartender and after slipping him a fifty dollar bill (hell, he could afford to splurge what with the large sum of money Xavier gave each instructor in the form of a private allowance) saying that he would pay for the woman's bill Logan made his way over to Ororo, hoping against hope that she hadn't had more to drink than she could hold…

"'Ro? You okay?" Logan asked, pulling up a chair across from Ororo and snaking a hand across the table to carefully remove the glass from her grasp, not expecting the quick reaction he got from her.

Blazing cerulean eyes glared at Logan, making sure to impart their owner's fury at a certain adamantium-laced mutant. "You would like to know if I'm all right, Logan? How about I answer you with this…" Ororo hissed, using a low, snarling tone that Logan had never known she had had and, if he was quite honest with himself, attracted him. She stood, moved to stand beside him and, grabbing his ear, screamed, "NO!"

Logan cried out in pain at the intensity her scream had launched into his system; sometimes having enhanced senses was not the best ability, especially when you had to hear the high pitched shriek of an obviously drunk mutant. After a few moments with Logan rubbing his ear in an attempt to speed up his healing factor's job at repairing the damage Ororo had done and thanking his deity that there was no one else in the bar besides the bartender he folded his hands and stared at the woman across from him. In the last few moments she had managed to snatch back the liquor Logan had been so close to taking away and was currently nursing it, seemingly rejoicing in the haze-induced stupor she willingly put herself in. Logan debated; how should he go about relieving his friend (whom he knew had a poor level of liquor tolerance when it came to the hard stuff) of her prize and getting her back to the mansion before she made a fool out of herself?

Ororo merely stared ahead, having forgotten about Logan's presence across from her but knowing that the liquor was her godsend. Thinking back to the graduation that afternoon she remembered with a shudder how chaos had broken out…

FLASHBACK

_**Xavier Institute for the Gifted, Bayville, New York, USA—June 8, 2006, 4:30 PM**_

The graduates that afternoon consisted of all of the X-Factor team and Todd, who had been able to graduate with the team (whom he got along with surprisingly well) due to the Professor's tutoring him after school; since they were not allowed to graduate with the rest of the class at Bayville High School Xavier had decided to throw them their own graduation ceremony and had picked Ororo to organize the whole thing. After everyone had received their diplomas and tossed their hats in the air chaos had broken out.

Ororo's nephew Evan, who had come to see his girlfriend Danielle Moonstar and all his friends from the X-Factor team graduate, had insulted the Brotherhood, who had been invited because of Todd's success. Pietro, never one to take a comment from Evan lightly, had taken one of the cupcakes that Jean had labored over for a good portion of the previous night and thrown it at the African-American mutant. Evan had managed to duck but the cupcake hit Scott instead, causing the Brotherhood and a few of the mutants from the Institute to snicker. Scott, upset enough already by the fact that Todd was graduating with his students and that the entirety of the Brotherhood was at the ceremony lost it. He shot powerful beams at the speed demon, who dodged the beam easily, allowing it to hit their newest member Betsy Braddock, code-named Psylocke, reducing her clean, brightly shining amethyst hair to a charcoal gray color.

Betsy, as she had already shown the rest of the Brotherhood, was not good with being attacked; in fact, she had shown that when attacked she always struck back with tenfold the pain. Scott, unfortunately, hadn't known this; therefore, he was unprepared when he noticed Betsy stand up, and with a snap of her fingers disappear into her shadow. While looking around for the escaped mutant Betsy traveled through her shadow to arrive behind Scott and, taking aim landed a punch on the back of his head that had even Logan whistling in appreciation. She had bowed to a thundering of applause from those who watched, especially X-Factor on stage, and then returned to her seat, relaxing as her boyfriend Warren Worthington III, known as Archangel, gently stroked her hair, taking out as much of the dust that Scott's beams had left in it as he was able. Warren had also recently joined the Brotherhood and together they were some of the newest muscle behind Erik Lensherr's ever growing cause for mutant supremacy.

Jean, absolutely appalled at seeing her husband collapse in pain, decided to have her revenge on the purple haired mutant and, jumping to her feet, launched a telepathic attack meant to disable Betsy. Betsy, having not sensed the oncoming attack, screamed in pain as the attack hit its target, collapsing in pain into Warren's arms. Warren, dark blue eyes burning, had stood up, Betsy in his arms, and took to the air, launching a barrage of metal feathers at the telepath, hoping to paralyze her.

Jean, luckily, had thrown up a shield but while she was distracted the Maximoff twins had grinned evilly at each other and, catching their sister Lorna's gaze on stage quickly came up with a plan. Lorna gave her diploma and cap to her boyfriend Alex Summers and took to the air, followed by Wanda, who used her magic to levitate herself to float next to Lorna. Jean, too busy blocking Warren's shots, didn't notice what was going on around her until she felt a strong gust of wind blowing her once perfectly styled dark red hair from the braid she'd put it in. Jean looked behind her and saw the sapphire eyes of Pietro, who'd raced up behind her and was currently holding her cell phone, PDA, beeper, and finally, her dark brown belt, causing Jean's emerald eyes to widen in shock while he stood there, smirking.

"Pietro!" Jean had screamed, quickly putting down her shield to hold up her khaki skirt (which, for some unknown reason, was bigger than usual on her) to prevent it from falling down. Warren, who'd been signaled by the sisters to stop his attack, merely watched Jean get what she had coming to her. Lorna pulled metal plating from around the fountain of an angel in the middle of the Institute's courtyard and hurled it at Jean as Wanda supercharged the metal with magical energy, causing it to gain its own personality; utterly humiliate Jean. Jean, splitting her powers, had taken back her belt from Pietro and, after putting it on, created a mental shield to try and protect herself from the sisters' attacks; however, due to Pietro's taking the signal from Wanda a giant hurricane was created around Jean, throwing dirt into her eyes and onto her once spotless pale green blouse, turning it an ugly shade of brown, Jean's face turning an unattractive shade of dark purple in the process. She had screamed and a reddish-orange aura had appeared around her, cloaking her in its energy.

Scott, just waking up from his small nap, caught the aura around his wife, and knowing that it wasn't a good sign, had taken off his visor and launched a full-scale at Jean, causing her to break her concentration on preventing the sisters' attack from hitting her to stop Scott's attack. His action shocked everyone present, especially Ororo, who felt like Jean was a younger sister and Scott a brother.

Ororo watched what unfolded with more and more fear, noticing that the decorations were completely ruined and that John was taking care of the flames, trying to put them out so Wanda and Lorna's attack could hit. Unfortunately, some of the flames that John missed coming off of Jean licked the base of the tablecloth that held all of the food for after the ceremony, which attracted Bobby's attention. Using his powers, Bobby tried to douse the flames but wasn't having much luck; that is, until Lance used the water that had dripped onto the ground to create a multitude of small mud balls and, launching them at the tablecloth managed to put out the flames. However, this caused the pale yellow tablecloth to turn the color of a giraffe's coat: brown and dark yellow. Amara, helping John control the fire, managed to put out the flames around Jean out and Wanda and Lorna's combined attack hit, knocking the mutant out and into Scott's arms. Scott, after making sure that Jean was knocked out cold got up and quickly ran towards the infirmary, Xavier following, and with that Ororo's patience was gone.

Ororo's eyes quickly turned pure white and she took to the sky and, quickly calling on a gigantic thunderstorm, launched torrents of rain onto the ceremony, and with her temper controlling her instead of her logic, unleashed all of the frustration that she had been holding in the entire day. X-Factor, on seeing Ororo take to the sky, had run from the stage and taken cover near the food table, underneath the canopy meant to keep it from getting wet, Lorna and Wanda quickly landing and joining them. The Brotherhood had followed the X-Men and gathered at the base of Ororo, pleading for her to stop and come back to the ground.

Ororo heard none of their pleas, instead choosing to send lightning bolts at the base of Lance, John, Evan, Pietro, Warren, and a now revived Betsy's feet, knocking them off balance. They all fell to the ground, with Evan and Pietro landing in a mud puddle left over from Lance's rescue of the food. The other X-Men ended up being blown back by the wind gusts Ororo launched; all except for Logan, who managed to stay standing due to his metal skeleton. Logan pleaded with Ororo to forgive the students, even going so far as to offer her the chance to torture them in Danger Room sessions, with the teams on the ground frantically nodding in agreement, much preferring to have Ororo torture them in the Danger Room where there was less chance of getting hurt in the simulations than in their current positions.

After a few moments the storm slowly lessened until the rain stopped and the sun once more came out, offering a calming balm to the drenched earth and those who still huddled on its surface in fear of Ororo's wrath. Ororo quietly descended to the earth, not saying a thing, keeping her eyes attached to the ground. She glanced around and on seeing the disaster that all her hard plans had turned out to be she had turned and run into the mansion, the fact that tears were beginning to fall from her eyes not escaping Logan as he watched her go.

FLASHBACK ENDS

Logan watched as the tears began to fall from Ororo's eyes, falling to land on her hands, which were curled around the glass of liquor. "Why did it all happen?" she whispered, still not having taken notice that Logan was still sitting across from her.

"You mean this afternoon?" Logan asked, making sure to keep his voice low in case the bartender tried to listen in, a habit that he had caught him doing quite often. On getting no response from Ororo Logan continued, "'Ro, listen to me: none of this was your fault… if anyone to blame it's your nephew Porcupine and that no-good son of Magneto; they're to blame for all that's happened."

Ororo lifted her head and stared at Logan, her cerulean eyes meeting his concerned black ones. She opened her mouth to answer but was silenced when Logan carefully placed his fingers over her mouth, causing Ororo to flinch away. Logan merely placed his fingers on her lips again, waiting until Ororo didn't move away to speak.

"Shh, 'Ro; it's okay… I'm not goin' to hurt you darlin'," Logan murmured, reveling in the chance to touch Ororo's smooth lips, pushing away thoughts of an evil nature from the forefront of his mind. "Why don't you give me that glass and I'll help you back to the mansion; okay?" Logan moved his hand from Ororo's lips to the glass still wrapped in her fingers and gently tugged, surprised when she wouldn't let go.

Logan cupped Ororo's chin in his hand and forced him to look into his own eyes, saying, "Ororo, listen to me: all that happened today, the disaster of the ceremony, the way you reacted, the aftermath, the evil glares of family members… it wasn't your fault…" Logan tried to continue but held back a scream as Ororo sent a jolt of electricity through him, her hand having grabbed his an instant earlier. Logan looked up and found himself staring into Ororo's now white eyes, mentally cursing, 'Shit, this wasn't what I thought would happen…'

After Ororo had stopped the shock she blinked and her eyes instantly reverted back to their clear blue, Logan breathing a sigh of relief as the transformation occurred. She blinked a couple of times and after looking around asked, "Logan what's going on? Why are we in a bar and why I am drinking this stuff?" Ororo took her hand from Logan's, not having noticed it was there, and lifted the liquor glass, examining the contents before making a disgusted face and quickly ridding herself of the evidence by placing the glass on a nearby table. She then looked at Logan and saw that he was staring at her and, getting a bit nervous asked, "What's wrong, Logan?"

Logan looked at Ororo strangely, not understanding why she was acting so normally when she had drank a fair amount of hard liquor (information courtesy of the bartender when he had inquired about her and her bill), which should have gotten her drunk; and pretty quickly as well. He decided to do something completely unexpected (even for himself) and, getting up moved his chair so that he was beside Ororo and, taking her hand in his looked into her eyes and said, "'Ro, I don't know if you remember the events of earlier today but you're here because you've been mourning the destruction of the graduation ceremony that you worked for weeks to plan, the complaining from all the students about what they had to do this morning before the ceremony, and especially for my… umm… less than kind behavior."

On seeing Ororo looking at him strangely he continued, "I'm telling the truth, 'Ro; I was an asshole this morning, what with my complaining to you about all the ceremony and decorations and chores and so on… it's just that my senses were on overload from all of the kids' emotions and I was stressed with making sure security was as tight as I could make it to prevent Mystique, Magneto, or Sabretooth from crashing the party… I'm sorry, 'Ro."

Logan ended his speech and looked at Ororo expectantly, expecting to either be thanked for apologizing about the day's events and for making her feel better or yelling at him for being such an ass and marching out of the bar; however, what really happened was not what he expected. Ororo leaned forward and captured him in a kiss that sent shockwaves through his system; Logan, after a second of surprise returned the kiss with as much energy as Ororo poured into it; more, in fact, than her. He drew her closer to him, placing his hands on either side of her face, gently stroking it as he deepened to the kiss. Neither one took notice of what was going on around them or who entered the bar…

_**Joey's Bar and Tavern, Bayville, New York, USA—June 8, 2006, 11:45 PM**_

At the entrance to the bar stood a gathering of teenage mutants, most from the Institute but mixed among them were some members of the Brotherhood. They stood in the doorway; shocked beyond belief to see Storm and Wolverine locked in what appeared to be an intense kiss; until the bartender demanded that they either enter the bar or get out. After exchanging glances they nodded and entered the bar, putting together a couple of tables quietly and, after ordering a beer for each of them, stared at the two teachers in front of them.

"Am Ah seeing wha' Ah think Ah'm seeing?" Rogue asked, beyond shocked that Logan and Ororo were kissing; much less in public. Although she had harbored some thoughts that maybe the two had feelings for each other she had never thought they'd act on them.

"Bien sur, chére; Remy knows dat what tu be seeing he sees as well," Remy replied, ruby-on-onyx eyes glowing in the dim darkness afforded by the corner, which had allowed him to remove his sunglasses. He casually draped an arm over Rogue's shoulders, earning him a punch on the shoulder and a scathing glare.

"Merde, Rogue, what was dat for?" Remy asked, his voice making him sound injured. Rogue merely glared at him and turned her attention to her friend Wanda, who had just sat down at the table next to her boyfriend John.

"You okay, Wanda?" Rogue asked, concerned for her friend's well being visible in her emerald eyes.

Wanda shrugged and replied, "Magic's been a bit off since this afternoon; I think Storm's electricity's still in the air, which is messing with my powers." John, who was next to her, tried the same tactic that Remy had tried with Rogue a moment ago and was rewarded with a small smile sent his way by Wanda, causing him to grin widely in response.

However, this move didn't bode well with Pietro, who exclaimed, "Pyro! Get your arm off my sister's shoulder!" Pietro soon turned his glare from the fire manipulator to his girlfriend Lexie, who was glaring at him with a look that uncannily resembled Logan's, her dark brown eyes narrowed dangerously at her boyfriend.

"Pietro, back off!" she hissed, and when she was certain that Pietro was focused on something else (his beer, for instance) she turned back to observe her "father" and Storm living it up. "God, don't they come up for air?" she asked randomly, hoping to get an answer to her question.

"Maybe Auntie O's using the air around her and Wolverine and funneling it into their lungs to make sure that they don't run low," Evan suggested, having taken the idea of going out on the town with Danielle and the X-Factor crew and run with it, reveling in the fact that he got to spend more time with his girlfriend. He didn't seem freaked out that his aunt was kissing Wolverine; in fact, he seemed rather pleased about it. He muttered a curse as Danielle hit him for having suggested such an idiotic idea. Evan merely grinned stupidly at her, hoping to melt her heart, but failed when Danielle abruptly turned to talk to Amara, who was currently snuggled in the embrace of her boyfriend Ray. Hearing snickering Evan turned and glared at the source, which turned out to be Alex and Lorna, who had already consumed their first beer and were currently on their second.

"Knock it off! Do you want us to get spotted!" Tabitha exclaimed from her spot next to Sam, ignoring her own advice as she spoke loudly, causing the bartender to look up from cleaning glasses behind the counter. Sam shook his head and whispering to Tabitha got a nod of agreement from his girlfriend that she then signaled to the others that she would be quiet for the rest of the night.

Those watching this scene shook their heads in amusement, knowing that Tabitha would be talking soon enough. Among these mutants were Lance and Kitty, who, after giving each other evil grins, were currently too involved in watching Storm and Wolverine kiss to notice that Betsy and Warren were holding bottles of beer over their heads and, after a moment's pause and a silent signal poured the bottles' contents onto Lance and Kitty, causing them to turn around and glare at their attackers. Betsy and Warren were shaking with silent laughter, holding onto each other for support at their success in having dumped their beer onto Lance and Kitty, revenge for previously that night when just the opposite had happened.

Bobby and Jubilee, meanwhile, had just shot down their beer rations and were in the mood to order another one but Rogue, who had been watching them, decided that no one under the age of eighteen (most of X-Factor, excluding Alex, Lorna, and Lexie) could have another beer. She got fierce glares of resistance from the two, who after realizing that Rogue could out-glare them at any time decided to get their revenge in the form of pranks, to be done the next day.

While they started to plan Roberto and Rahne, who were watching all that was going on with tired expressions looked at each other and silently agreed to leave and return to the mansion before Xavier or Hank caught them. They knew that most of the others were significantly drunk, having been to another bar previously and before that a dance club that Rogue had refused to go into but had been dragged into by Wanda and Kitty, which resulted in a group of fairly drunk mutants, minus themselves. They had both chosen to be responsible and not drink that night, wanting to make sure that they got home before curfew.

Roberto and Rahne quietly got up from the table and, going up to the bartender asked him to make sure that the group of people in the corner were out of the bar in an hour, each paying him a fifty dollar bill for his help. The bartender, pleased he had made $150 by just doing people favors nodded yes and went back to work, pocketing the cash as he did so.

Just when they had reached the door Rahne turned back and quietly got closer to Logan and Ororo, who were still kissing each other, except for the fact that Logan had taken apart Ororo's braid and currently had his fingers entwined in it and Ororo had her arms around Logan's neck; in fact, she was practically on his lap. Roberto looked back at his girlfriend and asked, "Rahne, what are you doing?"

Rahne looked back and with a mischievous twinkle in her emerald eyes responded, "Let's just say that we need to have some fun… can ye say 'Blackmail Opportunity'?" She showed him the small digital camera she had hidden in her pocket, which already contained pictures of their teammates and friends in compromising and embarrassing positions, situations that she and Roberto already had plans for blackmail thought up. Roberto grinned and moved closer to his girlfriend, laying a quick kiss on her cheek as she snapped photographs of the couple. Then, grinning, they hightailed it out of the bar, making it back to the mansion before the 12:10 AM curfew set by Xavier that day; however, the rest of the mutants didn't make it in until at least 1:00 AM, where they were met by an upset Scott and disappointed Xavier.

Meanwhile, back at the bar Logan and Ororo finally broke the kiss, and looking at each other, smiled. Logan shook his head and said, "Wow, 'Ro; I don't know what to say after that."

Ororo nodded in agreement and added, "I completely agree with you, Logan." They sat next to each other at the table, quietly talking and sneaking small kisses until the bartender shooed them out at 2:00 AM, neither one of them having noticed the gaggle of mutants in the back of the bar. When they got back to the mansion they went to their respective rooms after a quick kiss good-night, silently agreeing to not speak about what had happened between them until the next morning. They were both unaware of what Roberto and Rahne had planned for them and the pictures they had taken with Rahne's camera…

13


End file.
